Not four hours after being officially named Gilbert's new football coach, Leland Rodgers was headed for a Booster Club meeting.
After that, more meetings this week and next. And beyond.
Rodgers is moving himself barely four miles down the road. The defensive coordinator under Matt Gracey at Mesquite (and before that a defensive assistant during Mike Reardon's last year of coaching in 2010) now runs Gilbert's football program.
Other previous duties included a brief stint with former Gilbert coach Dan Dunn at Mesa Community College, and at Mesquite under former coach Rich Iverson. He also watched with part-delight, part-angst as many of his former Desert Vista kids he once coached as freshman and sophomores won the Division I state title.
He played at Dobson and then played college football at Florida-Atlantic, then spent the next two years as a student-assistant. He also ran strength and conditioning portions of most of those high school programs.
He laughed at those who've already questioned his coaching experience and accumen, praised the tradition Dunn and former coach Jesse Parker created and maintained in yester-years, and is well aware of the pitfalls Gilbert has experienced recently.
The latter are similar to neighboring-Mesquite: Declined participation, financial struggles in keeping teaching positions (which matters when it comes to him hiring assistant coaches) and struggling to keep up with the "big boys" in the Chandler and Tempe district schools of late.
"Gilbert's had challenges with keeping kids and being on the same playing level with the bigger dogs," he said Tuesday evening. "I'm definitely aware of the mountain in front of me, but I think the administration is supportive and willing to help.
"It'll be an ongoing challenge to steer the ship in the right direction and do some things a little different. That's going to take some time, it won't happen overnight, but if a foundation is there and kids will see changes and things to be excited about. If you can keep those kids, you definitely have a shot. It's definitely a challenge."
He'll teach at the school next year, though what specifics have yet to be determined. The same can be said for his assistants, candidates with whom he plans to have conversations with in the next two weeks, though he plans to oversee the Tigers' defense.
"I have a philosophy and that's not going to change, but schemes will depend on personnel," he said. "It's not going to be a revamp, but you can't be so stubborn as to put yourself in position to fail."
His first defense will be keeping kids at Gilbert, an easy partnership to winning when it comes to ratcheting up rivalries with, say, Mesquite and Highland.
"It gives a chance to re-charge the rivalry a bit," he said. "It didn't need much but it could always get taken up a notch."
Mark Heller is the East Valley Tribune sports editor. He can be reached at mheller@evtrib.com or (480) 898-6576.
GHS_FB_Mom posted at 11:12 am on Fri, Aug 24, 2012.
Not sure if anyone is reading this at this point since this story is several months old. But since the first Freshman and JV games have been played, and lost, I thought..."Hmm...wonder if anyone else out there is feeling the same way I am..."
That after months of weight training, camp, practices...I'm not seeing a whole lot of progress (at least as far as JV is concerned) than what I saw last year. Players still see defense running at them and they either stop or drop to the ground, defense isn't working hard enough to stop offense. Why are these players not tackling?!? Why don't they follow through when they have the ball?!?
We had a problem last year with some parents complaining that their kids were getting hurt during tackling drills! Seriously?!? This is football! If you don't want your kid getting hurt...put them in a different sport, swimming, badminton...ballet! Because the other team is not going to go easy on them so your baby doesn't get bruised. Honor the integrity of the sport...it's a rough game. If your kid can't handle it, get them out...but let my kid learn how to hit and how to get hit...hard.
Gilbert JV lost to Desert Ridge last night by an embarassing 48-6. Desert Ridge looked like a fine-tuned machine. Whereas Gilbert looked like a bunch of kids were picked up off the street and put into some awesome looking uniforms...but couldn't play worth a d@mn!
A huge emphasis has been placed on uniformity this year with the new coaching staff. $125 for a Spirit Pack...so all the boys have the same practice uniform, travel uniform, etc....for what?!? What's the use of looking good if they can't play?!? Let's put less emphasis on how the LOOK...and focus more on how the PLAY. This is case and point why there was so much resistance from parents about all the money this season cost GHS parents. Let's see some proof first that things have changed before we start worrying about how they look. I don't give a rat's @$$ about new uniforms next year! If they can't tackle and learn to run the ball without dropping to ground at the first sight of someone running at them...they can wear rags for all I care! Don't ask us to sell anymore of those ridiculous Gold Cards, candles, cookie dough...whatever else you have planned! These boys can wear the same uniforms for the next 10 years...until they start playing with some heart and showing their school that they have the same devotion to winning that teams like Desert Ridge and Basha do...who show pride in their team...they don't deserve the best! They deserve the bare minimum...which is what they're giving us.
Now, MAN UP, GHS! Show your spirit...be proud and play like your life depends on it. We want to see some return on all the time and money we, the parents, put into this! Show us that it meant something!
And for parents that still want their babies protected from getting hurt...get them out of football! They, and you, are hurting the team!